I want Teleporting to be my superpower and the answer to Agile co-location!

Besides not having to wait in the TSA lines to visit all of my bucket list vacation spots, I would love for my Scrum IT teams to be able to teleport to work and skip the 1-2 hour or more, commute just to co-locate or work together, side-by-side! There is another answer.

Don't get me wrong - co-location is amazing and highly effective, but the cost can be daunting when the team is dispersed. Huge commutes cause problems on many levels: safety, cost, ecology, wasted time and basically, I am exhausted after commuting 1.5 hours so no dinner for the family.

There are two extremes: many companies feel they can save money by outsourcing to other countries and don't always see the expected results. What is the real cost?

Others are embracing new ideas that co-location (working in the same physical room) improves productivity. This is forcing distance teams members to make huge commutes (that they are now using to look for a new job).

I definitely have a strong opinion on both these thoughts about working side-by-side and company cost savings.

My solution... teach teams to co-locate remotely!

How does that work? A few simple steps:

1. Invest in technology to achieve the 2 Minute Rule! Dialing-in and screen sharing works in 2 minutes or less... but no more! This takes upfront effort but is achievable. This also includes a backup plan when wi-fi is down or other technical issues.
2. Everyone, even the people in the same location have remote access at the same level, there is an entire explanation about this, it is very daring but the more I teach teams to do this, the more I realize how well it works!
3. Teach remote interrupting etiquette: embrace messaging and phone calls, eliminate emails. There are a few other tools that help emphasize the "I'm sitting next to you" communication.
4. Set up common hours - at least 2 a day, 8 is best! This is exceedingly important when you are choosing an outsourcing company to work with - will they adjust hours to accommodate your schedule or do your team members have to stay up late at night to work together?
5. Make remote teams self-sufficient. They have cross-functional talent and all the skills to complete the stories. If the remote team or members of the team is only to augment the team, such as additional developers, ensure there is a tester that can validate the work as it is completed. This makes for increased productivity and quality. All of the remotes teams work should be reviewed locally before anything would be accepted. Finally, to help the remote teams, they need to be part of the daily stand-up, every day.
6. Ensure the stories and requirements the remote teams work on are understandable and complete (INVEST). They can work the features to completion with little collaboration from the local team.

Sadly, the teleporting super-power might not be available until a few more Avenger movies figure it out. Until then we need to write the rules for remote teams because they are totally an asset when setup thoughtfully. Not some frustration over the Polycom - for a true illustration watch: Teleconference in real life

My advice is that all 6 steps need to be embraced and monitored for success.

Remote teams can save you time, money and ensure expertise and partnership for years to come. This is a huge cost saving and there are many other benefits of learning to empower your remote teams and team members.

Co-located... REMOTELY.